Saturday 28th February 2015

After taking a 1 hour and 45 minute train from Bristol to London Paddington station, Sam and Tom arrived in the busy capital at 10am. They left the train station, and stood on the pavement to take a break whilst the teaming street had people running up and down it, but Tom ensured that Sam was safe from being bumped out of the way as he kept her between himself and an advertising board. He was taking every precaution to keep her safe from any risks so much so that he had taken a rucksack with their things in to save her from carrying a handbag in case she was mugged for it - sure he was being paranoid, but he'd rather be extra safe for his wife and his baby, than to not be safe and let something happen to them.

"Right, now we can either get a taxi to Regent's street, or we can take a 15 minute walk, your choice." Tom stated as he was in charge of the transport for the day.

"We'll walk." Sam stated.

"Alright then, this way." He smiled as he linked arms with her and they began making their way through the crowds. Thankfully, even though it was only the end of February, it had turned out to be quite sunny and just warm enough for them to leave their coats at home. Though because spring was coming early, Sam had worried about a hot summer whilst she would be heavily pregnant - and it wasn't a nice thought.

"Right, where do you want to go first?" He asked curiously as they arrived on the corner of Regent's street which was quite busy for a Saturday morning, but thankfully, it was less busy than the area around the train station that they had exited minutes ago.

"H&M." Sam replied. "I've looked online and they've got a nice maternity range so I can spend my voucher that you got me for my birthday." Sam explained. "I'm alright for shirts at the moment, it's just trying to find jeans that I can actually button up. These ones I have to breathe in for."

Tom chuckled before before they entered the three floored shop and went upstairs to the maternity range. After trying on quite a lot of clothes, Sam had decided on getting 3 pairs of low waisted skinny jeans, some leggings, a cardigan and a few jersey tops which had gone over the price of her voucher but Tom had reassured her that it was fine.

"Why don't you have a look at the bras?" Tom suggested to which Sam frowned in confusion. "Well you've had a sore chest, why don't you get some more supportive bras. Plus I can't be the only one that's noticed that your current bras are now too tight." Tom stated as he glanced down at Sam's blue hoodie. Sam twisted her lips before she went over to the lingerie section and Tom followed her with the basket of clothes. "Hey, how about these?" Tom smirked as he picked up a hanger with three pairs of string black lace briefs on it.

"Nah, I don't think they'd suit your body shape very well." Sam said sarcastically.

"Haha. I meant that they were for you."

"I know, and I was being sarcastic."

"Right, shall we split up for a while so that you can get some shopping?" Sam suggested as they exited the shop with two H&M bags.

"I'm fine, honestly." Tom replied, as he wasn't sure of splitting up from his pregnant wife in such a busy street.

"No really, I want to get some bits by myself." Sam admitted as she glanced over to the Boots store.

"You're not embarrassed are you?" He smirked as usually, she was perfectly open about everything to do with her body.

"No I just don't think that you're going to want to spend 10 minutes waiting while I try and find a pack of panty liners that I like." Sam retorted. "C'mon, we can split up, and then meet for lunch yeah?"

"Um... I suppose so but be careful yeah? Try and stay out of the crowds and-"

"Tom, I'll be fine." Sam interrupted. "I've got my purse and I've got my phone so I can call you if I need you."

"Okay. Where do you want to meet?" He asked.

"By the pizza express that we saw by the train station. And if we meet around 2pm, then the lunch rush would've died down too and we can have a meal in there." Sam replied.

"That gives you three and a half hours!"

"Well done, you can do simple numeracy." Sam said patronisingly.

"Right, fine. We'll meet outside pizza express at 2pm, and just give me a call after a couple of hours and let me know how you're getting on yeah?"

"I will." Sam huffed. "See you later." Tom pecked Sam on the forehead before he watched her walk towards the traffic lights so that she could safely cross the road to Boots.

Sam entered Boots with nothing in her hands because Tom had been carrying her H&M bags, so she grabbed a basket and walked down the first aisle. Unfortunately, pregnancy had caused her to have greasy skin and she had been using a neutrogena cleansing lotion on her face twice a day so she got some more of that, and another small tube of spot cream before she moved on to the feminine essentials aisle. She had never actually used panty liners before because she had never required them, however she was beginning to need them more and more as almost every day she was getting discharge and she wanted protection for it. But she didn't want anyone to be able to see that she was wearing them so she got two boxes of the thinnest ones she could find.

Pregnancy had certainly heightened her sense of smells, and she loved finding new pleasant ones every day. She had been craving nice smells so badly that she had smelt some of the herbs and spices in the cupboard from when Tom had disastrously attempted to cook a curry from scratch, and she absolutely loved the smell of cumin seeds and smoked paprika. So when she found the shampoo and conditioner section, she couldn't help but pause and smell some of them and smile at the sweet, soothing aromas rather than the polluted air outside. She soon found the bath lotions and once she smelt the radox lavender sleep easy bath gel, she immediately had to put it in the basket.

With her basket full of toiletries, she was almost finished when she found the antacids. She had only had heartburn a handful of times and even then, it had only been nothing major. But she knew that at only 12 weeks gone, it was only going to get worse, so she picked up a bottle of dual action Gaviscon that was safe to use during pregnancy, before she made her way to check out.

Tom was sat in Costa Coffee, having a cappuccino with a Belgian chocolate brownie because he loved the atmosphere and the smell of sitting in an armchair in a coffee shop, and it wasn't fair to make Sam sit in there when she couldn't have a coffee unless she didn't have any caffeine for the rest of the day, and she just didn't want to take the risk so he took the opportunity whilst they had split up. He had bought two caramel chocolate shortbread squares from the shop too and they were wrapped up in his rucksack for the 2 hour journey home on the train with his wife.

He had all the clothes that he needed, and to be honest, he absolutely hated clothes shopping so he had decided to spend his time in Regent's street to get a few presents for Sam to cheer her up because he felt bad that carrying his baby was having such an effect on his wife. However, he wanted to give Sam the bag of gifts when she was feeling really bad and she appeared to be alright whilst on their trip to London, so he had gotten a carrier bag from H&M to hide them in.

He was just taking a bite of his brownie when he saw Sam walk into the shop and his heart skipped a beat before he ducked his head and hoped that she wouldn't see him because he had not yet put her presents in the H&M bag, and instead they were all in their individual bags, including one from Hamleys and one from Godiva chocolate shop so he didn't want her seeing him. He wondered if she was secretly snacking on cakes and chocolate whilst he wasn't there - the thought of which made him smirk. However, he was happy to see that she was smiling, and that she was getting a mango and passion fruit ice drink to go, so he wouldn't have to hide for long.

It seemed like forever, when it was really only a couple of minutes as she grabbed her beverage, paid the worker and then left the café, leaving Tom to let out a sigh of relief.

2pm

"Hello beautiful." Tom smiled as Sam walked up to him with her hands full of shopping bags outside the pizza express where there was a queue outside. "You've been busy." He smirked at the amount of things she had gotten. "Here, I'll take them for you." Sam's arms were aching so she had no objection as she handed all of the bags over to Tom, who then had both of his hands full.

"Ugh, there's a queue." Sam moaned.

"Well it's a good job that I came by and reserved a table earlier then isn't it?" Tom said smugly and Sam's face lit up as she no longer had the thought of waiting in another queue in her mind.

"Here are your drinks. I'll be back shortly with your starter and then I'll take your orders." The waitress smiled before she left Sam and Tom who were sitting at a table for two with a glass of lemonade each, and their shopping bags cluttering their feet below them after they had ordered dough balls to share for their starter.

"So what did you get then?" Tom asked curiously.

"Some new trainers for work, I got some walking boots for when we take Shadow out, some more tops from river island, a new scarf, sunglasses, and I got this blue and white stripy gym duffle bag that I can use for the gym, and I can use it for my birth bag and I can use it as a changing bag too." Sam explained. "What did you get?"

"A few bits from H&M and that's about it really." Tom lied as he only had the one carrier bag and he didn't want to seem suspicious.

"Well then what did you do for 3 and a half hours?" Sam demanded.

"I had a coffee from costa, and then I went for a walk in Hyde park." He lied. "I did have a look around the shops but you know I hate shopping." He shrugged. "Right c'mon, what do you want for lunch?" He asked as he looked at the menu. "Wait, let me guess. You want the... Pollo pesto pasta. And for dessert, you want the summer pudding."

"How on earth could you have possibly known that I was going to order that?" Sam laughed as he had gotten it exactly right.

"Because I know you wouldn't have a massive pizza to yourself because you don't like lots of cheese. So that narrowed it down to the pastas and the salads, and I know you wouldn't order the salad for lunch because we've got a long journey home and that wouldn't fill you up. So it was either pollo pesto or the lasagne, and lasagne is too cheesy. And for the dessert, you always choose something with fruit in it, and the summer pudding is served with Mascarpone and you love mascarpone." Tom explained and Sam squinted her eyes at him.

"Fine, let me guess what you're going to have."

"Please, don't embarrass yourself, you wouldn't have a clue." Tom said smugly.

"Alright fine, I'm not even gonna bother." Sam huffed before she took a sip of her lemonade.

5pm

They were just the next stop away from Holby train station after a long day out in a carriage alone, with no other passengers as they were at the back of the train. Their shopping bags took up three seats alone, whilst Sam was lying horizontally across 5 of them, and she was fast asleep.

"Sleepy head, we're nearly home." Tom whispered as he crouched down in front of her. "Cmon, open those eyes." He smiled as he tucked a bit of her hair behind her ear. "Sam... Sam..." He said softly but she was clearly in a deep sleep as she didn't even stir. "Sam your waters have broke." Tom said loudly and Sam's eyes flickered open as she looked at him in confusion.

"What did you say?" She croaked.

"I said we're nearly home." He chuckled softly as Sam stretched her arms out and then sat up properly. "What do you want for dinner? We can have something a little bit later to fill you up so that you're not in the kitchen at midnight looking in the cupboards for something to eat." He smirked.

"I've never done that!" Sam protested.

"You did it last night." Tom laughed. "I just pretended to be asleep when you got back into bed so that you weren't embarrassed." He stated as he picked up the shopping bags into his hands so that they were ready to get off of the train when they reached Holby.

"Well I blame your baby for making me hungry." Sam retorted.

"Fair enough." Tom shrugged. "So what do you want for dinner?"

"Not salad. I am bored out of my mind with salad." Sam said firmly.

"Yeah, I said what do you want for dinner, not what don't you want for dinner."

"Okay... Um...something with smoked salmon."

"How about I rustle something up with smoked salmon, philidelphia, chives and spaghetti?" Tom suggested.

"As long as I don't have to cook it, sounds lovely." Sam stated as she got to her feet. "Woah-"

"Careful, I've got you." Tom said reassuringly as the train suddenly came to a halt and Sam lost her balance, but she fell into Tom's chest and he kept her upright.

"Thank you." She smiled as the train stopped completely and the pair got off onto the platform with their bags.

Sam was having a little difficulty sleeping despite having quite an active day, but she just felt uncomfortable. So Tom had gotten Sam comfortable in bed without the duvet in case she got too hot because she was in her onesie, and they had the heating on, and he sat at the end of the bed giving her swollen ankles a rub.

"Thank you for making dinner by they way. It was surprisingly nice." Sam admitted as she stared at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to overcome her.

"You should never underestimate my cooking skills." He said smugly.

"Says the one who thinks that a fish finger sandwich is a meal." Sam retorted.

"That's a meal when I can't be bothered to cook. When I put my mind to it, I can usually create something edible. And speaking of edible, I still can't believe she chewed my slipper into a million pieces." Tom moaned as Shadow entered the room, jumped up on the bed and curled up on Tom's pillows.

"Well hey, we know she likes cheese so leaving your slippers within sniffing distance of her was clearly a mistake." Sam joked halfheartedly. "And to be honest, I hated your slippers anyway; they looked stupid and made you look like a 90 year old."

"Well you don't have to look at my feet do you?" Tom protested.

"No, but now that you've only got one slipper left, I won't have any problem with doing so." Sam smiled.

"Right, foot rub is over. You, get off of my pillows now." Tom ordered sternly as he stood up and walked around to his side of the bed. Shadow gave a small whine as she looked at Tom with her sad puppy eyes, which always managed to melt Sam, but they rarely worked on Tom. "No. You ripped my slipper to smithereens so you're in the dog house - no pun intended." Tom remarked as he gently pushed the border collie off of the bed and onto the floor.

"Shadow." Sam whispered as she patted the mattress by her feet. The dog jumped back up and curled up by Sam's feet so Tom watched as both females happily settled down for the night.

"I give up." Tom muttered before he flicked the light out.

Coming up: Tom helps Sam to write out her birth plan but then she is involved in a brawl in the ED.

Thanks for reading, please review :)